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It's election year again...what does that have to do with conspiracy theories and this thread in particular?
Typically starts getting folks dander up about all sorts of dot connecting that shouldn't and can't be connected and some crazy stuff. Here's an example.
American students are not good at math as reported by News Agency X.
1+1=2
2 divides into 666.
Obama said our students should get better at math as reported by News Agency Y.
Obama is the anti-Christ because he supports math!
Somehow it just doesn't fit does it? But some folks do think along those lines and will post up some crazy stuff online (here, there, everywhere on the net). They connect dots that shouldn't be connected, bring up wild and unverified stories of grand scale conspiracies (think the FEMA camp stories and Rex 84 that makes it's way around the net every so often) and generally do not do their homework in researching what amounts to nothing at all. Or using basic common sense by seeing the sky actually is blue and not falling at all. Some folks gulp down the entire story, hook, line and sinker and pass it on as truth. When in reality, it amounts to nothing more than wild conjecture and interpretation of events that are not connected. But some will say:
"But it's all super secret stuff! The government classified it and they know how to keep secrets!"
Uhh, yeah, sure. And how did you come by this information since it's so super highly secret?
"I had a friend who works on base that told me the military is planning on large scale operations to place the country under martial law! They were training for riot control and tossing conservative groups into internment camps! I saw the pictures online and heard about the training! And I heard Alex Jones reporting it the other night so it HAS to be true!"
Ever think your "friend" is pulling your leg or doesn't have all the information and wildly guessed the military was planning on that by wildly connecting the dots that didn't exist in the first place? And please, the military has roughly 3 million folks in the Guard, Reserves and Active duty. You think that all three million were sworn to pinkie promise secrecy about something like that and nobody would talk? Routine training happens all the time and sometimes it happens to be riot control. But somehow folks seem to think it's the start of a grand takeover and martial law because COINTELPRO was never really terminated and the FBI, CIA, DHS and the Men in Black have been keeping tabs on them since they bought the movie JFK from Amazon and got put on the "list." Something like that...
So please folks. Conspiracy theories are fun and generally provide a few minutes of entertainment. But please, please don't go posting up each and every theory that has no research or background just because you read about it on some obscure blog or heard it on a radio broadcast. Or post up conjecture that has no basis of fact. Folks can and will connect dots from multiple sources that are not connected and sell it as truth. Take Alex Jones for example. I listen to Alex Jones every once in a while because he is entertaining. Do I take everything he says as truth? Absolutely not. Will Alex Jones continue to make radio broadcasts and write books about things that are probably not? Sure he will. Why? Because if he didn't, he would have no readers or listeners and hence would make no money and starve. So he continues to sell the things that do sell and folks take as the gospel truth. And these same folks go on without even thinking for a moment it's not what it seems or there is some other reasonable explanation for the events that he reports. And further spread the information by claiming it is what it really isn't.
And Alex Jones knows this and continues to throw out the wildest stories he can because people will believe. Why? Because it sells! And it's entertaining! And people believe it without even thinking for one moment it might not be the truth or can be explained very simply with something else! Shoot, he might not even believe in most of it, I don't know. But the fact is most of his stuff can be interpreted in different ways or explained by normal occurrences. This isn't a rant against Alex Jones (again, I like him because he is entertaining) but against the grand conspiracy theories some folks like to throw out because they interpreted conjecture and innuendo, twisted the facts and reported it as the truth.
So facts are what we are looking for in General Discussion. Reported facts by a reputable news source and not "I head it from a friend who has a brother's cousin's roommate in the Department of Housing and Urban Development." Not some grand connect the dots scheme about how the President has rigged the elections because a software company bought another. Or how REX 84 is about to be implemented because someone saw a train full of military equipment heading through Oregon. No guessing at events and interpreting them to make the most inflammatory posts possible.
Factual news in General Discussion. News from reputable, reliable sources. And certainly not twisting the facts, omitting others, making up new ones and spinning it around to meet your pet theories about large scale conspiracies. NBC tried that by editing the 911 call in the Sanford shooting to make the most inflammatory news possible. Twisted the facts to attempt to make someone look like something they were not. And look where that got them. Facts, cold hard facts.
Yeah, I'm a real downer and take all the fun out of everything.
Typically starts getting folks dander up about all sorts of dot connecting that shouldn't and can't be connected and some crazy stuff. Here's an example.
American students are not good at math as reported by News Agency X.
1+1=2
2 divides into 666.
Obama said our students should get better at math as reported by News Agency Y.
Obama is the anti-Christ because he supports math!
Somehow it just doesn't fit does it? But some folks do think along those lines and will post up some crazy stuff online (here, there, everywhere on the net). They connect dots that shouldn't be connected, bring up wild and unverified stories of grand scale conspiracies (think the FEMA camp stories and Rex 84 that makes it's way around the net every so often) and generally do not do their homework in researching what amounts to nothing at all. Or using basic common sense by seeing the sky actually is blue and not falling at all. Some folks gulp down the entire story, hook, line and sinker and pass it on as truth. When in reality, it amounts to nothing more than wild conjecture and interpretation of events that are not connected. But some will say:
"But it's all super secret stuff! The government classified it and they know how to keep secrets!"
Uhh, yeah, sure. And how did you come by this information since it's so super highly secret?
"I had a friend who works on base that told me the military is planning on large scale operations to place the country under martial law! They were training for riot control and tossing conservative groups into internment camps! I saw the pictures online and heard about the training! And I heard Alex Jones reporting it the other night so it HAS to be true!"
Ever think your "friend" is pulling your leg or doesn't have all the information and wildly guessed the military was planning on that by wildly connecting the dots that didn't exist in the first place? And please, the military has roughly 3 million folks in the Guard, Reserves and Active duty. You think that all three million were sworn to pinkie promise secrecy about something like that and nobody would talk? Routine training happens all the time and sometimes it happens to be riot control. But somehow folks seem to think it's the start of a grand takeover and martial law because COINTELPRO was never really terminated and the FBI, CIA, DHS and the Men in Black have been keeping tabs on them since they bought the movie JFK from Amazon and got put on the "list." Something like that...
So please folks. Conspiracy theories are fun and generally provide a few minutes of entertainment. But please, please don't go posting up each and every theory that has no research or background just because you read about it on some obscure blog or heard it on a radio broadcast. Or post up conjecture that has no basis of fact. Folks can and will connect dots from multiple sources that are not connected and sell it as truth. Take Alex Jones for example. I listen to Alex Jones every once in a while because he is entertaining. Do I take everything he says as truth? Absolutely not. Will Alex Jones continue to make radio broadcasts and write books about things that are probably not? Sure he will. Why? Because if he didn't, he would have no readers or listeners and hence would make no money and starve. So he continues to sell the things that do sell and folks take as the gospel truth. And these same folks go on without even thinking for a moment it's not what it seems or there is some other reasonable explanation for the events that he reports. And further spread the information by claiming it is what it really isn't.
And Alex Jones knows this and continues to throw out the wildest stories he can because people will believe. Why? Because it sells! And it's entertaining! And people believe it without even thinking for one moment it might not be the truth or can be explained very simply with something else! Shoot, he might not even believe in most of it, I don't know. But the fact is most of his stuff can be interpreted in different ways or explained by normal occurrences. This isn't a rant against Alex Jones (again, I like him because he is entertaining) but against the grand conspiracy theories some folks like to throw out because they interpreted conjecture and innuendo, twisted the facts and reported it as the truth.
So facts are what we are looking for in General Discussion. Reported facts by a reputable news source and not "I head it from a friend who has a brother's cousin's roommate in the Department of Housing and Urban Development." Not some grand connect the dots scheme about how the President has rigged the elections because a software company bought another. Or how REX 84 is about to be implemented because someone saw a train full of military equipment heading through Oregon. No guessing at events and interpreting them to make the most inflammatory posts possible.
Factual news in General Discussion. News from reputable, reliable sources. And certainly not twisting the facts, omitting others, making up new ones and spinning it around to meet your pet theories about large scale conspiracies. NBC tried that by editing the 911 call in the Sanford shooting to make the most inflammatory news possible. Twisted the facts to attempt to make someone look like something they were not. And look where that got them. Facts, cold hard facts.
Yeah, I'm a real downer and take all the fun out of everything.
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